just a place to share some thoughts

My Friends in 2F

Just outside Cottam, Ontario is wonderful Gosfield North Public School. In the very last classroom, you will find 2F. 2F is an incredibly active classroom with friends who know their technology and they use it well when it’s appropriate. They keep their community up to date with classroom happenings on their blog.

I get invited to visit 2F every now and again to see my friends and they always make plans to show off something new and we get a great chance to learn together. Yesterday, I was invited out – their teacher had been interested in learning more about Google’s Streetview from my post “My Childhood Community”.

These amazing students took to the concept so easily. The computer attached to their SMARTBoard has a permanent internet connection and, as normally happens with this amazing class, the teacher and I just took a seat and the wisdom of this Grade 2 crowd took over. The real challenge was recognizing that you place the little orange dude on the map by his shadow and not his head.

Once that was mastered, I was in for a great storystelling experience as we explored Cottam and saw student houses, learned about their neighbours, and looked for local landmarks like basketball nets. We were so impressed that all of the streets of this small community had been videoed and made available to us. The students were literally navigating through the Maps and Streetview using the SMARTBoard in seconds. Their presentation and discussion styles were awesome too as they presented all about their community like they had been practicing for days.

But, then I received a couple of big surprises. The class had recorded their dance impressions using their RCA Smaller Wonder. I got to enjoy their moves and had to guess the theme for each of them. When each dance started, that was the class cue to all get up and dance along. Hilarious!

Then, the big event. I got to see a video that the class put together. The video is accompanied by a laminated big book for permanent safe keeping. I’ll do that and treasure it. Here’s the video the class put together – minus the class photo at the end.

In addition to all this, I got a personal note handed to me from one friend at the end.

It was a terrific morning. Thank you so much to 2F and Ms. Fellbaum. I loved it!

Mr. Peterson also made a huge difference in the lives of about four to five hundred children in the Early Literacy program and their teacher at Northwood School over the past 4 years! We will miss you!
Enjoy this next phase of your life!
Awesome Job 2F!! The book is amazing!